The Inferior Court had jurisdiction over county business matters, such as care for the poor, building and maintaining the courthouse and jails, building and maintaining roads and bridges, issuing liquor licenses, nominating justices of the peace, performing naturalizations, appointing guardians, authorizing indentures, and maintaining a register of wills. The Clerk of the Inferior Court kept minutes of the foregoing proceedings--every one of which places individuals in Jefferson County at a particular point in time--and those minutes comprise the basis for this book.